Night Lies
by Civilized Lee
Summary: There's something about the night that makes it easier for her to tell those lies. Or maybe it's just that in the dark, people are more willing to believe them.


"What do you know about Sirens?"

Moxxi looked up curiously at her new customer sitting in front of her. The woman's silver eyes pierced into her as she absent-mindedly swirled the drink in the glass in her left hand. The bartender flashed her a grin and a wink. "Not as much as I'd like to, sugar."

An amused grin played across her blue lips as she glanced down at the bar. "I'm waiting."

She hummed a little sigh, studying the tattoos running up her customer's left arm. "If that's what you're looking for, maybe you ought to talk to Dr. Tannis."

"I tried." The Siren took a slow sip from her glass. "She vomited on my shoes." Her nose scrunched up, and she shook her head at the memory.

Moxxi chuckled. "She does that to everybody. Don't take it personally. She'll warm up to you, eventually. Or at least learn to control her gag reflex around you."

"Seriously. What do you know about Sirens?"

"I know you've all got crazy-ass powers," Moxxi offered with a shrug. "I know you all have some strange connection to the Vault. And I know, from the two I've seen and the one I've heard about, that you're all gorgeous."

Another smile played across her lips. "Hardly a scientific observation," the woman muttered.

The bartender chuckled. "Sorry. Didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

She gulped back some of her drink, then shook her head. "Not at all. I just... so you don't know anything, huh? What about Lilith? Know anything about her?"

Moxxi straightened up a bit, involuntarily. "Sorry, sugar. Nothing you'd be interested in that you don't already know." She leaned over again, resting her right forearm flat against the bar. She had always gotten the impression that Lilith didn't much like her, but she wasn't about to admit it to a new customer.

She quirked an eyebrow. "You're not lying to me, are you?"

Moxxi grinned. "Now what reason would I have to lie to you, sweetness?"

Silver eyes studied Moxxi's face for a moment before looking back down at the bar. "In that case... what about the Eridians?"

The bartender smirked. "_Nobody_ knows much about them, hon. Pretty sure they're extinct. I know their technology's worth a lot to the right people, though."

"I'm not interested in money," she said, taking a sip from her glass.

Moxxi laughed. "_Every_body's interested in money, honey." In a place like Pandora, that was the only thing that even mattered.

"They're supposed to have some sort of connection to us, aren't they?"

"No idea." She brushed her hair over her shoulder. "Like I said, I'm not exactly the authority on this."

The Siren nodded, but didn't say anything.

Moxxi looked her curious customer up and down. It must be hell, she thought, trying to find some greater purpose, trying to make sense of those other-worldly powers. Not to mention dealing with all the people trying to do her harm.

The bartender cleared her throat. "What's with all the questions, sweet lips?"

"Call it an inquisitive nature."

"So why ask li'l ol' me?" Moxxi asked, putting a hand to her chest and fluttering her eyelashes.

"Your reputation precedes you," she said. Moxxi raised her eyebrows. The Siren downed the rest of her drink, then smirked. "I get the feeling there's a _lot_ you could teach a woman who grew up in a monastery."

She slid her glass across the bar and left a healthy wad of bills on the counter. Moxxi bit her bottom lip, staring at the Siren's ass as she walked out.

"More than you know."

* * *

"You wanna see what I can do?"

"Please."

The argument between the two men playing a knife-throwing game was starting to boil over into a full-on fight. Moxxi was getting ready to intervene, but the woman who was quickly becoming her new favorite customer offered to intervene. Moxxi remembered seeing Lilith in action back when her Underdome was in its glory. She was looking forward to seeing how well her counterpart would fare.

One of the men threw a punch, or tried to, but before it could connect, they were both lifted off their feet and encased in a glowing, translucent sphere.

The Siren stepped forward, glaring up at both of them, the tension showing in her tattooed arm. She twitched her fingers slightly, turning the two men to face her inside her phaselock.

"Jack has been bombarding us every day with moonshot strikes. We've been busting our asses fighting off the Bloodshots _and_ Hyperion ground troops, all to keep this city safe. The last thing we need to deal with now is the people we're trying to defend going at each other's throats."

She raised up her left hand, then with a swift downward swipe of her wrist, slammed them both onto the floor.

"You can either get along in here, or you can try to kill each other out there in the tundra, but if I catch you two starting any more trouble in here, you are going to regret the day you were born. Are we clear?"

The two men groaned out a hurried "Yes ma'am" in unison. Moxxi watched them stumble to their feet and scurry out the side door, and a few hushed conversations started up around the bar. She hadn't even noticed the rest of the patrons fall silent in the first place.

"Impressive," Moxxi said, pouring a drink and a glass of water.

"Fear can be a good way to keep people in line," the Siren muttered. She took a sip from the drink offered, then added bitterly, "So I've learned."

"Somethin' you wanna share, sugar?" Moxxi leaned forward a bit, trying to establish eye contact. "I'm all yours."

"Hm?" she asked, silver eyes meeting cyan.

"I'm all ears," Moxxi said, without missing a beat.

"Hm." She took another drink, then shook her head. "It's nothing."

The bartender straightened up and adjusted her hat. Her curiosity was piqued, but she wasn't about to press the issue, especially after bearing witness to a small sample of the Siren's powers.

"Well," she said, turning and picking up a dirty glass and a dishrag. "I just wanna say thanks for taking care of that. You can do some amazing things with that arm."

"If I can do all of that with one hand, imagine what I can do with the rest of me."

The Siren smirked at the back of Moxxi's head as a glass smashed into pieces against the hardwood floor.

* * *

She had always been used to lying to the people she brought back to motel rooms. Harmless little white lies in the night. Strokes of the ego in exchange for strokes on the skin. Both of them making each other feel good. It only seemed fair.

There's something about the night that makes it easier for her to tell those lies. Or maybe it's just that in the dark, people are more willing to believe them.

"I've had my eyes on you _all_ night, Sugar."

"Don't worry, honey. This won't hurt a _bit_."

"Ooh, you're the _best_ I've ever had."

That last one always made her laugh. The ones who asked her how they were doing, the ones that prompted that little night lie, were always the worst in bed. If they didn't bring her to finish, they'd skip the foreplay entirely, or they'd finish early. Hell, Moxxi didn't even mind doing most of the work, but for fuck's sake, it was expected that they put in _some _sort of effort.

Then again, not everybody had someone like her to teach them. What the Siren lacked in experience, she more than made up for with enthusiasm. All she would need is Miss Moxxi to let her climb into her bed, and educate her.

Moxxi's Siren student had been very straightforward with her about what she wanted. It only seemed fair to return the favor. The bartender brought her to her own room, rather than the motel she usually checked into. The motel room always sent a clear message: they both go their separate ways the next morning. But the Siren had already told Moxxi she wasn't interested in anything committed.

The honesty was a refreshing change of pace.

Moxxi grinned and patted the empty space on the bed by her left side. "Scoot on over here, sugar. I don't bite."

Yes, the honesty was refreshing. But sometimes, she couldn't help but tell those night lies.

* * *

Moxxi's bar opened up a little late the next day. Well earned, she thought. She had never seen a Siren in action quite like that before, though that wasn't to say she hadn't imagined what it would be like. No amount of fantasy could have prepared her for that liquid electric touch.

In a few hours, the bar would start filling up, but for the time being, the whole place was empty. It was strange without any sound, any music, any unintelligible conversations. She set her tip jar out on the bar, unlocked the front doors, and threw them open. She took a long sniff at the mid-morning air. It was about as fresh as Pandora gets.

"Have a good time last night?"

Moxxi jumped as a familiar, biting voice spoke up from directly behind her. She wheeled around to see a pair of golden eyes staring her down.

"Lilith," she greeted her, brushing past the red-haired Siren. "What would you know about a thing like that?"

Lilith turned on her heel and followed the bartender. "I see that you met Maya."

Moxxi paused before unlocking the side door. "Maya," she repeated, testing out how the name sounded coming out of her mouth. "Hm. I like it."

The Siren's jaw clenched as Moxxi unlocks the side door. "You..." She groaned and pressed her palm to her forehead.

"Anyway." Moxxi propped the side door open, then headed to her usual spot behind the bar. "We did a lot more than _meet_."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing."

"Somethin' wrong, sugar?" she asked, grinning.

Lilith flashed a sarcastic smirk back at her. "Don't play coy with me."

Moxxi leaned back and studied Lilith for a moment, taking in her strange, aggressive tone and the accusing look in her eyes. "Ohh, I get it now..." She smirked and put her left hand on her hip. "You're jealous."

Lilith's eyes widened. "What?" she asked, her voice raising in pitch. She never could keep her voice steady when she was lying. "No I'm not."

The bartender laughed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Now who's playing coy?"

"Maya is my _friend_, and I'm just trying to look out for her," the Siren said, jabbing her finger down on the bar. "She doesn't need you stringing her along just because you wanted a good extra-dimensional fuck."

Moxxi blinked. Unable to resist, she sighed, then said, "Well. It _was_ good..."

Lilith's nostrils flared as she exhaled sharply. The bartender looked down apprehensively at the mixture of light and dark blues swirling in the markings on her left arm.

"...but before you try and make your point, maybe you should know that the whole thing was your _friend's_ idea."

The Siren's fierce eyes softened up as she furrowed her brows. "Beg pardon?"

"Maya is a grown-ass woman, Lil. She made her choice. Quite frankly," Moxxi continued, glancing down at her fingernails, "I'm a little insulted that you think that lowly of me."

Lilith glanced to the side, trying to think of what to say next. After a moment, she looked back at the bartender. "Yeah, well. I've got my eye on you."

* * *

A week had passed since Maya spent the night at Moxxi's. Moxxi had seen Maya vanish into thin air along with the other Vault Hunters when Lilith phased Sanctuary. A wave of dread had surged over her as it happened, but the barrage of mortars raining down on the city didn't give her much time to analyze her reaction. Roland said they would be fine, they would find their way back to Sanctuary, and he was right, of course. The Vault Hunters were tough. Although she couldn't quite match his unwavering confidence that nothing bad would happen to them.

The Vault Hunters ended up getting back one night after they were teleported away. Axton, Salvador, and Maya all showed up at the bar, and Moxxi gave them all a bubbly greeting welcoming them back. Maya gave her a curious look in return.

"Were you worried about me?" she teased, leaning forward onto the bar, her lips spread wide in a playful grin.

Moxxi chuckled, taking in the soft hint of moonlight blending into her blue hair. She responded, without actually answering the question, by saying, "Oh, I think you're perfectly capable of handling yourself."

She was. But it wasn't until after last call that Maya showed she was just as capable of handling Moxxi, too.

* * *

"Roland tells me this mission's dangerous."

Maya rolled her head from side to side as Moxxi worked her thumbs into the Siren's shoulders.

"He said... not everybody might come back."

Maya slowly opened her eyes. "And you're worried."

Moxxi fidgeted on the bed, her hands moving over Maya's shoulders. "No, it's just... You're... a good friend to me."

Maya looked over her shoulder. "So are the others, but you didn't invite them to your room."

The brunette shakes her head. "It's not like that-"

"Moxx..."

"And so what if I am worried?" she asks, defensively. "Am I not allowed to worry about you?"

"That's not what I meant." Maya turned around on the bed, facing the older woman. "I just... we talked about this. Nothing serious. You're still okay with that, right?"

Moxxi looked at the young woman in front of her, her sharp facial features softened by the blue light of the night sky peeking in through her window. "Of course."

She leaned in to nibble on Maya's neck, to feel her soft skin so hard on her hands, to lose herself in their perfection.

* * *

"I tell ya, Moxx, these new recruits... sometimes I don't know."

Axton orders up another drink and lets out a groan. He seemed like the logical choice to train up all the people who had joined up with the Crimson Raiders. Or, at least, as logical a choice as they had, when compared to, say, Krieg.

"All they wanna do is get out, see the universe, open Vaults. Half of 'em don't even know how to handle a gun! One of them dislocated his thumb from the kickback when he fired his pistol. You believe that? Zed's already fixin' these kids up and they haven't even been on a battlefield yet."

Moxxi smirks. "I'm sure he learned his lesson, at least. I notice people don't often go to see Dr. Zed twice."

Axton chuckles. "No shit. Oughtta send people to him for punishment, that'd straighten 'em up."

He looks up at her, and if not for all the makeup she has on, he would have seen the color drain right out of her face. The look in her eyes, focused on the door, is enough for him to get the message and turn around.

"Maya?!" he asks, grinning. "Holy shit, you didn't tell me you were back in town!"

Moxxi watches as Maya and Axton exchange a quick hug. She's amazed at how casually Axton is taking it. Maya and Lilith had been away for months by now, chasing any lead they could find on the planet about Sirens. And now here they were, shooting the shit like they had just seen each other yesterday.

"Please tell me you're staying here for a while," she hears him say. "All these FNGs keep asking me where are these Sirens they heard so much about."

"Yeah, we might be in for a bit," Maya says, sitting in the barstool next to his. "We found a lot of stuff we're gonna need Tannis to take a look at."

"Is that what Lilith's doing?" he asks, signaling Moxxi to pour the Siren a drink. After a beat, she gets the message.

"Yeah. There's a _lot_ that we found, too. I think Tannis might kiss her," Maya says, waggling her eyebrows as she and Axton both take a drink from their glasses. Axton nearly spits his out.

"That good, huh?"

"No kidding."

Moxxi raises her eyebrows at Maya, and the Siren grins back at her.

"Didn't think I forgot you, did ya?"

"It's good to see you, sugar," she says, putting her right hand on top of Maya's left.

"Oh, come here." Maya stands up and sits on top of the bar, then leans over and wraps her arms around Moxxi in a hug. The brunette is caught off-guard at first, but eases into the Siren's embrace, resting her head against her shoulder.

"I'm gonna go say hey to Lilith," Axton says quietly, excusing himself from the bar.

Moxxi smiles and closes her eyes, not yet willing to break the hug. She smells exactly the way she remembers her, like spices carried on a fresh autumn wind, and the scent brings back wave after wave of memories back to her, those cold nights they spent warming each other up.

"It's so good to see you, Maya," Moxxi repeats, her voice barely more than a whisper, as she slowly pulls apart, keeping her fingers interlocked behind the Siren's neck.

"It's good to see you too," Maya returns, smiling and moving her left hand up to Moxxi's wrist. After staring into each other's eyes for a silent moment, the bartender slowly relinquishes her grip, and the Siren eases back onto her barstool.

"Guess you won't need to ask me if I know anything about Sirens anymore," the brunette says, letting out a small laugh, despite herself.

"I guess not," the Siren says, resting her left hand on top of the bar. "But I'm glad I got to find out what you knew, anyway. I learned a lot from you."

Moxxi hums quietly, fluttering her eyelashes as she briefly glances down at the ground. "I'm glad," she says after a quiet moment, placing her own hand on top of hers.

Moxxi squeezes Maya's hand, and the Siren gives it a small squeeze in return, and Moxxi can almost feel the way the Siren used to caress her in the darkness, teasing fingers exploring hands and arms and breasts. For a moment, they're the same brilliant tattoos that illuminated the shadows in her bedroom, that glowed straight through the sheets, that pulsed in rhythm with each wave of pleasure gentling through their bodies.

Maya withdraws her hand, and the illusion is destroyed. Suddenly aware of the tightness in her chest and the lightness in her head, Moxxi takes in a deep breath.

"Damn... how long has it been?" Moxxi murmurs, resting her elbow on the bar and cupping her chin in her hand.

The day they killed Jack seems like a lifetime ago, and judging by the look in Maya's eyes, she feels the same way. It wasn't long after that Maya and Lilith had gone off to discover Pandora in search of clues to what they were.

"Just under four months, I think," Maya says, after a long pause.

"That long." Moxxi more exhaled the words rather than speaking them. "It's strange... you look the same, but... different. Changed, somehow. Maybe that sounds weird."

Maya shakes her head, resting her own chin on her hand as if to mirror Moxxi's pose. "No, not weird. I'm not the same person that left here a few months back."

Moxxi smiles, then gives an almost unnoticeably small nod. She probably has changed, in so many ways, but looking at her now, Moxxi can't help but see that same curious, confident vixen that walked into her bar so many moons ago. Forgetting herself, she clears her throat and opens her mouth to speak, but somebody else beats her to it.

"Hey!"

Moxxi swallows back her words as Lilith and Axton walk in through the side door, the Siren greeting them and waving at the bartender.

"Hey yourself," the bartender returns, straightening up.

"You look good," Lilith tells her, as she and Axton take a seat on either side of the light-haired Siren.

Moxxi chuckles. "Tell me somethin' I don't know, hon."

"Something you don't know..." Lilith reaches for Maya's drink, earning herself a playful slap from the blue-haired Siren's tattooed hand. "Well, Eridians might not be native to Pandora."

Moxxi lets out an interested hum. "Sounds like you two have been learning a lot about yourselves."

Lilith rests the side of her left hand against the bar, and Maya's glass suddenly slides over into her palm, causing her blue eyebrows to arch up. "Something like that," she says, raising the glass to her lips. Maya coughs into her fist, then takes a drink after Lilith sets the glass back down.

A tiny amused grin works its way across Moxxi's face, despite herself. "You look good too, sugar."

"Naturally." Lilith giggles and bows her head, before checking her ECHO device. "Hey, what time is it?"

"Late," Axton mutters, taking a drink from his glass.

"Early, technically," Maya adds.

Lilith hums. "We should go," she says. "Had kind of a long trip. Plus Axton said something about us putting the fear of God into his recruits."

Axton nearly chokes on his drink for the second time that night. "I didn't mean-"

"Well, they're in for a surprise," Lilith says, picking up Maya's glass and throwing back half of what's left in it. The blue-haired Siren laughs, then downs the rest of it.

"Hey," Maya says, looking into Moxxi's eyes. "It was nice seeing you. We should catch up. Tomorrow?"

Moxxi looks into her eyes, feeling that old familiar chill they always gave her. "Tomorrow's great."

Maya smiles at her, putting her left hand on the brunette's right and giving it a gentle squeeze before she turns to leave. Moxxi keeps her gaze locked onto the back of Maya's head as she and Lilith walk away.

"You alright, Moxx?" Axton asks, studying Moxxi's face.

She watches them walk out the front door, into the streets bathed in the pale moonlight, Lilith laughing and putting her left hand on Maya's shoulder. Moxxi's lips slowly spread into a gentle smile.

"Yeah. I'm alright."


End file.
